Freeport Village News

July 2001

Freeporters Refuse To Give Up The Fight
Mayor Gives Residents Back Their Pools July 3, 2001
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Freeporters Refuse To Give Up The Fight
Mayor Gives Residents Back Their Pools

BY Stewart Lilker

Monday night, July 2, 2001, was the first time since the Republican Glacken and his band of Glackenites were elected that Freeport Village Hall had standing room only, as residents came out in force to protest the Board’s secret decision to demolish Freeport's neighborhood swimming pools. The event was of such magnitude that all three of Freeport’s county legislators were present as the meeting began - Dave Denenberg, Joe Scannell and Patrick Williams. County Legislator, Patrick Williams, showed up with his attorney, telling FNYN, "We’re here to listen." (Pictured, almost two hundred residents sat and stood shoulder to shoulder to address the village board and support their neighbors).

Absent from the meeting was Freeport’s Park Commission, along with its Chairperson, Angie Cullin, the Freeport Republican leader, Town of Hempstead Councilwoman, and the former Town Receiver of Taxes.

At the beginning of the meeting, Patricia Murphy, the Mayor’s PR person, was overheard asking one of the legislators, "Are you here to stab the Mayor in the back?"

The evening’s meeting began with the Glackenites approving the bonding of, according to the Mayor, eight million dollars worth of bonds (in blue - Go to agenda). The residents, waiting patiently for their turn at the microphone, became agitated when your reporter pointed out that the Board was approving the expenditures of over $2,000,000 on parking lots and road construction, while at the same time they had dedicated themselves to the destruction of the neighborhood swimming pools.

For the past two weeks, the Mayor had been escalating, geometrically, the cost of the renovation of the pools at Freeport’s Randall and Martin Luther King (MLK) Parks. Initially, on May 18th, Glacken told the residents the cost to get the pools running was $250,000. Then, Glacken gave Newsday the price of $500,000. Tonight Glacken told a stunned audience that the cost to rehabilitate the pools at MLK and Randall was "A million each." He said, "The village is struggling to make ends meet."

Glacken explained that the village had entered into a contract with a bus company for three years to transport residents from all neighborhoods to the Rec Center. Due to the continuing poor acoustics and the Mayor’s refusal to speak into the microphone, it was almost impossible to understand most of what he said throughout the evening. It appeared that he claimed the cost of the bus contract was $13,400 a year and that it was for transportation, for only two months during the summer. Glacken never explained why bus service wasn’t necessary for the rest of the year.

One by one, the residents came to the microphone to voice their disapproval of the Glackenite decision to demolish Freeport’s neighborhood pools. While Glacken continually defended the Glackenite decision, the Trustees sat mute, as if cast in stone. Not one person of the approximately two hundred attendees supported the Glackenite position of destruction.

First to the microphone was longtime resident, John Helfrich. "Good evening Mayor Glacken, Board of Trustees and Consigliore Edwards [the Mayor’s brother in law and the mob/Village Attorney]. There has been a lot of subterfuge and lies since you took office, Mr. Glacken. The first when I approached you about Glacken Park. You had promised it would be open for our children. Just give you a chance. Unfortunately, I believed you and you locked our children out of our own, public, tax supported, park."

Helfrich continued, "Mayor and Board, I have here 328 signatures of people, not only in the pool areas, but from all over Freeport. They are incensed at what you and your board are doing to our children. What I want to know is, what have our children done to you that you hate them so much? Why have you singled out our children for this punishment? Is it because they can't vote? Or, is there a more sinister motive? How can you say that our children, our most important assets, are not worth the $500,000 dollars that, you claim, it takes to fix the pools, when you give over a quarter of a million dollars a year, of our hard earned tax money, to your brother-in-law, Harrison Edwards? I don't remember seeing a legal notice for bids to repair the pools. Is the $500,000 another lie you've perpetrated on this community?" (Click here for the full context of Mr. Helfrich’s remarks).

Your reporter, who is also a Freeport resident, made a brief appearance at the microphone, explaining to the Mayor that Freeport is a "low wealth - high need" community, as demonstrated by the NYS School Report Card, which showed that "sixty percent of the student population at Dodd Jr. High School is on free and reduced lunch." When your reporter pointed out to Glacken that "The destruction of public property should never have been discussed in executive session," Glacken, contrary to NYS law, continued to claim that he had done nothing wrong. Your reporter concluded, "It was a travesty the way you came to this decision, it would be a tragedy to demolish these pools."

Northeast Freeport Civic Association president, Bernie Smith, was told by the Mayor that in comparison to the neighborhood pools, the Rec Center was "like the Taj Mahal." Smith told the Mayor, "That’s an absurd comparison."

When Glacken again defended his position to demolish the pools, telling Smith, as he had been telling people all night, that the facilities at the Rec Center were superior and "people were foolish not to take advantage of the Rec Center," Smith shot back. "It’s an arrogance of power for you to decide for the people what’s best for them or how to use their pool. You are dictating to people, what is good for them, and not asking them for their thoughts. Once again, that’s arrogance of power."

(Pictured right - Bernie Smith addresses Mayor Glacken (second from left) as mob/Village Attorney Edwards looks on, along with Trustees White and Miller (left to right).

The audience sighed in disbelief as Glacken told Smith, "I represent all of the people."

One by one they came to the mike.

Margaret Lopez, a resident of NE Freeport told the Glackenites about the Rec Center pool, "It couldn’t hold all the children. They would be like Sardines." She explained to the Mayor that she was a school bus driver, not a wealthy person. She echoed the sentiment that many of the residents shared, "Sometimes I don’t have two dollars a day." [The cost of admission to the Rec Center].

Conceta Pearson was furious when she addressed the Board. "I’m asking you. Are you aware that the children have free lunches at the park?" Glacken told her that the lunches could be brought to the Rec Center.

Pearson also complained about the busing, "We didn’t know about the buses until the day they started." Pearson, looking out over the assembly, asked the Mayor, "Do you care about the kids in our community? You are looking at three generations." Glacken didn’t look up.

Pearson, referring to the raise Glacken gave himself after he entered office, said, "Why don’t you take a pay cut to help pay for our pool. You took it upon yourself to take what’s precious from us."

Glacken told Pearson, "There is no question that the Rec Center can provide for all the children." When Pearson disagreed, Glacken told her, "I didn’t interrupt you." Pearson replied, "Yes you did. You interrupted a lot of people. Your time is going to come."

Amelia Penalver, explaining a recent trip to the Rec Center told the Mayor, "The Rec Center looked like a zoo."

Former village trustee candidate Anna Muhammed told the Glackenites, "The Rec center is an addition to, not a replacement for the neighborhood parks. This is what happens when you run government that is not by, for and of the people."

NE Freeport resident and mother, Rosland Reese, addressing the Trustees asked, "What were your thoughts? Did you just agree?" The Glackenites continued to stare straight ahead, not batting an eye, nor saying a word.

Reese, turning toward the audience said, "These parents care for their children." Turning back to the Mayor she asked, "Did you know that when the children got on the bus they had to have a Rec card and money?" Both the Glackenites and the Rec Center Director, John Jefferies, didn’t know.

I want to be part of this community.

Cynthia Debois Johnson told the Glackenites, "I’m trying to raise my children not to be criminals. We are out there together watching our kids. You are making me want to go somewhere else. I want to be part of this community."

School Board trustee candidate Carmen Pineyro asked the Mayor, "Why was the Village so careless in the maintenance of these pools?" Pineyro, along with the residents, waited for the answer. Finally, when Glacken told Pineyro, "We were monitoring the pools," the audience let out a collective "No."

As the evening stretched on, resident after resident came to the microphone. Only a few left, as most sat patiently waiting for their turn to address the Glackenites.

One teenager told the Mayor, "I didn’t know you were the Mayor. It [the MLK pool] keeps most of the kids out of trouble. You did nothing that’s good for me. You did what’s good for you."

Carol Green Hammond, Director for the Freeport/Rosevelt branch of EOC asked the Glackenites, "Why didn’t you let us know?" Freeport’s Deputy Mayor finally spoke up. "It’s not the kind of thing where we get public input." Hammond told her, "It’s business as usual. It’s a slap in the face."

And they kept coming to the microphone, mothers and grandmothers, Dubin, Bilbo, Jones, all asking the Glackenites to rethink their decision.

This is only the second time I’m here.

Long time resident, George Coward, waited patiently for almost two hours to address the Mayor. He spoke quietly and passionately to the Mayor. The poor acoustics had the people straining to hear what he had to say. He told the Mayor. "I’ve lived here for thirty five years. This is only the second time I’m here. I voted for you last time. We want to respect you. The anger you are hearing is the hurt people are feeling. You are doing something wrong. You have to lay it on the table. Are you strong enough to listen to the people?"

Ellen Frey, discussing the lack of trained supervision on the bus, told the Mayor, "You are asking for a disaster to happen." She continued, "Mr. Lilker made a point. We have sixty percent of our student’s in our schools that are on free lunch. Now you are going to open a can of worms and turn around and say, if you can’t afford lunch, you can’t afford to get into the Rec Center, but go to Mr. Jefferies, he’ll make arrangements for you to go in. Last year the pool was overcrowded with camps. This is the worst decision you have ever made."

Diane Coleman apologized to the Glackenites for coming to the meeting in a running suit, explaining that she had just heard about the pool closings and came right from the gym. She told the Mayor, "I am opposed to the closing of the pools. It is crystal clear that you have touched a nerve. It seems that someone had forgotten that this was a low wealth community." She concluded with, "I think you will be seeing more of me here."

At 11:20 p.m., almost four hours after the meeting began, long time Freeport resident, community icon and village employee, Joyce Rommel approached the microphone. She looked up at the Mayor and the Board and said, "My name is Joyce Rommel. I come here tonight with the same concerns that the rest of the community has concerning the pools. I’m here 34 years. I’m a girl scout leader. I teach religion at Holy Redeemer, I’m a Kiwanian, I’ve worked with the Freeport Fire Department for twenty seven years, and I am also the past director of the Randall Park --. John Jefferies is my boss. I found out about the pool closings at the same time everybody else did, about a week ago... I hope and pray that you change your mind and do it for these people."

At 11:30 p.m. the last slip of the evening was turned in by Akmal Muhammad. A friend of Muhammad’s explained to FNYN that he had seen the story only moments before on the FNYN web site and rushed over to address the Mayor and the Board. Muhammad pleaded with the Glackenites to use reason and change their decision.

At 11:35 p.m., without one word of discussion about the demolition of the pools, Glacken asked for a motion to go into executive session to discuss 12 personnel matters. According to NYS law, any discussions about the events of the evening regarding the demolition of the pools would have had to be done in public.

Your reporter waited until 1:00 a.m. for the Board to come out from behind closed doors. Again, there was not one word of discussion about the pools. History repeated itself, as Glacken fumbled, virtually inaudible, through motions approving personal service contracts, well after everyone went home.

On July 3d, at 01:08 a.m., the July 2nd Board meeting was finally adjourned for good, five and a half hours after it had begun. The people had spoken and the Glackenites were still dug in.

At 10:00 a.m. Freeport Resident and activist, Devorah Weinman, called your reporter with news that Channel Four’s Greg Cergal was on his way to the Randall Park pools. I called Ella Jones, a life long resident who lives across from MLK park and told her that News Four was expected to be at MLK at about 12:00 p.m. Jones told me, "They were here early this morning cleaning the park. They are cleaning it right now. I’ve never seen them here this long cleaning the park."

I arrived at the Randall Park pools at about 11:45 a.m. News Four was wrapping up its interviews. I spoke with Cergal for a few moments, gave him directions to MLK park and told him I would meet him there.

As I was driving up Main Street I received a call from, Paula Licota, the reporter for the NY Times. She asked if I had a statement, as she had just received a statement from the village that Glacken had changed his mind and had decided not to demolish the pools.

As I pulled up to MLK park, Weinman was knocking on doors telling the local residents that NewsFour was on the way. Girl Scout leader, Diane Clark, a south Freeport resident, who was instrumental in alerting the residents in the south about the pool closings, also came to MLK.